Moving (or at Least Thinking About It)

Abstract

Chances are that either you have, or you will think about moving to greener pastures. Intention to move is remarkably common. In an analysis of 2013–2016 survey data of faculty at 36 U.S. medical schools, approximately 30% responded “yes” or “I don’t know” to the question “Do you plan to leave this medical school in the next 1–2 years?” [1]. These faculty were more likely to be women and more likely to be junior faculty, although the differences were small. That is just intent to leave. Leaving a particular faculty position is referred to as faculty attrition and there are a wide variety of reasons for it. For example, in a study of a single institution, Girod et al. found that professional and advancement opportunities, salary concerns, and personal/family reasons were the three most frequently cited issues leading to departure [2]. Faculty in clinical roles tended to leave earlier, express lower workplace satisfaction, and more likely to perceive incongruence and inaccuracy in institutional expectations for their success than those in non-clinical roles. Balancing competing demands and navigating institutional expectations for advancement were also cited as issues by clinical faculty. Other studies have cited poor departmental leadership, lack of institutional support for scholarly activity, lack of recognition of clinical activity, institutional culture, and unethical behavior of other faculty or staff [3–8].